From Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Director Dave Tomasko:
It has been quite a summer – and not in a good way. Back in June, we had the highest hourly rainfall amount recorded in over 50 years, associated with the weather event the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA’s) National Hurricane Center has named Invest 90L. In August, our neighborhoods – especially in the Philippi Creek watershed – were impacted by the over 20 inches of rain associated with what became Hurricane Debby, whose eyewall was over 100 miles west of us. In September, our barrier islands were slammed by record-setting storm surge from Hurricane Helene – which was also about 100 miles west of us. And then we had Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Siesta Key, and which impacted us with both a substantial storm surge (although not quite as large as Helene in the northern portions of our coastline) as well as a wind field large enough to destroy houses as far south as Punta Gorda while also ripping apart the roof on St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field.
We’ve all had our own personal impacts to deal with – and every one of our staff lost power for at least a few days, many of us for over a week. And I’m sure you have had equal if not worse impacts to your own homes, if not those of your friends and family. But how did the bay respond to all of these events?
|